Why are we deporting heroes?

While the undocumented Dreamers, immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, wait to become citizens, the Obama administration finally has decided that Dreamers with critical skills will be able to enlist in the military. This policy change not only gives some of them a chance to serve our nation, it also fast-tracks them to get their U.S. citizenship.

The White House deserves credit for this policy change, but it’s hard to reconcile its willingness to have undocumented immigrants fight for our nation only to detain and deport some of them once their service is over. Banished Veterans, an advocacy organization, estimates that as many as 30,000 veterans might have been deported since the Immigration and Naturalization Act was updated in 1996. The law requires the deportation of non-citizens convicted of criminal offenses that range from fraud to violence, including murder. The law also doesn’t allow the judge any discretion in the decision.

Service should matter

This uncompromising law has put Valente and Manuel Valenzuela in deportation limbo since 2009. The brothers were born in Mexico and came to the U.S. in 1955 with their mother, who was a U.S. citizen. Valente, the oldest, joined the Army in 1965. Manuel became a Marine in 1971. Both served honorably and are decorated veterans.

However, because of misdemeanor convictions in the 1990s — domestic violence for Valente, and drunk and disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for Manuel — both received deportation summons in 2008. The brothers don’t deny the actions that led to the charges and convictions. Manuel says his were triggered by post-traumatic stress disorder.

The two men have been fighting deportation in part because the law establishes their U.S. citizenship. “These statutes specify that the moment we’re born to a U.S. mother that we are U.S. citizens,” Valente told me.

The problem, according to the Department of Homeland Security, is that the brothers are described as resident aliens on their birth certificates, a mistake that brings the men’s citizenship into question.

“The government is treating us like we’re aliens, and we’re not,” Manuel said. “We’re American citizens. And we are citizens of Mexico. Both countries. We cannot live like this the rest of our lives, looking over our backs.”

The complexities of their citizenship status aside, the Valenzuela brothers would not be in this spot if their military service were given the value it deserves. All U.S. veterans, regardless of nationality or immigration status, should be given the right to have criminal cases adjudicated in a system sensitive to the unique challenges they face. Veterans Treatment Courts, the first of which was created in Buffalo in 2008, provide them that opportunity. Like drug courts, these courts work with correction agencies, substance abuse and mental health treatment providers, and support groups.

New options for vets

Justice for Vets estimates that as of 2012, there were 104 Veterans Treatment Courts in the U.S. More are on the way. But if undocumented veterans (or veterans such as the Valenzuelas whose citizenship status is being questioned) can’t access them, the very concept of justice is diminished severely. Veterans in detention or facing deportation deserve to get their cases before these courts. So do those who have already been deported.

The Obama administration and Congress undoubtedly will continue to tussle over the broader questions of immigration reform, including the president’s emphasis on deportations overall. But men and women who have served this country honorably in uniform deserve better than long detentions and unceremonious deportation if they have run afoul of the law. They deserve a chance to have their cases heard in a U.S. court that appreciates their service and is sensitive to their often complicated circumstances.

And if they are convicted and sentenced, they should be allowed to serve their time here — the nation where the Valenzuelas and many others have raised families and built lives. Wearing the uniform honorably should afford them basic decency. Anything less is un-American.

David Person, a host on WEUP 94.5 FM in Huntsville, Ala., is a 2013 Casey Foundation journalism fellow and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors.